The invention relates generally to the field of shooting targets, and more particularly to a shooting target with a mechanism that causes the target to reset to a different position upon being struck by a projectile, thereby visibly indicating when a particular component of the mechanism has been struck by the projectile.
A wide variety of people, including hunters, stationary target marksmen and action shooting competitors, enjoy shooting sports. While hunting, hunters aim to strike living animals, such as fowl, with projectiles, such as bullets or pellets, and the fowl react visibly to being struck. This visible reaction allows a hunter to perceive when a strike has occurred without inspecting the target. Stationary target marksmen and action shooting competitors fire weapons at non-living targets, such as steel plates and sheets of paper on which human and animal silhouettes are printed. Such non-living targets typically do not move or fall over when struck, and thus target shooters have a distinct disadvantage to hunters in the area of visible changes to a target after a strike has occurred. For example, when a marksman strikes a paper target, the projectile creates a hole through the target the size of the bullet, and the hole is preferably visible from the marksman's location. However, if the target is more than 20 or 30 feet away, a separate optical device, such as a “spotting scope”, is necessary in order to locate the hole so the marksman can adjust, if necessary, his or her weapon's sights or scope, without having to walk the distance to the target and back between every shot. The visible changes in conventional targets that have been struck are not apparent using the naked eye, and therefore the benefit to the user can be minimal. Of course, some targets are close enough for the marksman to see, or make a sound or movement to make impact perceptible. However, even such targets that move must be reset so that the next impact is perceptible.
Some marksmen use thick steel plates that are struck by bullets or other projectiles fired by the marksmen. These plates are not damaged by the impact of a bullet, and thus can be used for a long period while providing a stop for the projectile. Such plates can be painted so that the point of impact is visible to the shooter due to a mark that the projectile makes in the paint, in much the same way the hole is made in the paper target. However, a spotting scope is often still required, because the mark is usually quite small.
The need exists for a target that provides a visible indicator to the shooter that the target was impacted by the projectile that is visible without requiring the shooter to move.